Three-time NBA champion and 13-time All-Star Dwyane Wade is joining the WNBA’s Chicago Sky ownership group, becoming the latest high-profile figure to invest in the league at a pivotal juncture in its 27-year history.
via: Uproxx
Wade‘s post-playing career has involved getting into the sports ownership game, as the soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee purchased minority stakes in the Utah Jazz back in 2021 and Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer in 2022. Now, Wade has decided to expand his portfolio to include a WNBA squad, as the Illinois native is purchasing a stake in the Chicago Sky.
The news was broken by Alexa Philippou of ESPN, who noted that the size of Wade’s stake is unclear and still needs to be approved by the league’s Board of Governors. But despite that, Wade expressed his excitement over the move, saying that he views this as an important way to support the league.
“We all talk about support, and support looks different for everyone,” Wade told Philippou. “And so instead of tweeting out and saying ‘go support the W,’ instead of showing up at the game and supporting, I wanted to take it to that next level, and this was the next level for me.”
Wade went on to confirm the news on his Twitter account.
It’s an incredible feeling being on this side of history. To see growth, on the business side, for something that I’ve been passionate about my whole life is an amazing feeling. There are amazing things happening in the @WNBA. It’s official! This is for the home team– literally.… pic.twitter.com/lsvQovpj5z
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) July 14, 2023
It’s been a busy couple of months for the Sky’s ownership group, as the team welcomed a new group of investors back in June that purchased a 10 percent stake at an $85 million valuation. Now, the group welcomes in Wade, with Sky co-owner and operating chairman Nadia Rawlinson telling ESPN “This is meaningful for the players, and this is meaningful for the city as a whole. Dwyane Wade is a son of Chicago. And the thing that differentiates us, I think, from other franchises is that we are Chicago. We are the future of Chicago. We are the culture of Chicago. We are in it and of it, and he is very much sort of a main character in that story. And we’re just pleased and thrilled at what the future can bring with both of us working together.”
The 2021 WNBA champions, Chicago is in a state of flux right now, as the team is 8-12 on the year and saw its head coach and general manager, James Wade, leave midseason to accept an assistant coaching job with the Toronto Raptors. The move came on the heels of a tricky offseason for the Sky, which saw five of their six leading scorers from last year’s squad — Candace Parker, Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley, Emma Meesseman, and Rebekah Gardner — not return for the 2023 campaign.
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